Today’s lesson is about language use, and more specifically, how to use a swear word correctly.
I am usually a fan of Progressive’s commercials, starring the ever-cheerful Flo; they’re short and funny, and while I don’t believe for a second that Progressive actually does allow you to “name your own price” for auto insurance, I like the idea of an ethereal store where you can shop for insurance packages. Maybe it’s supposed to look like heaven.
Anyway, I must complain in the strongest possible way about this most recent commercial because of the blatant misuse of a euphemism. You’ll remember from 8th grade English class that euphemisms are more polite ways of saying something rude or distressing. In this case, alongside the other amusing “old codger” slang, we have the word dagnabbit. This is a word you might associate with Yosemite Sam; it has a definite cartoonish quality, a word that no one would actually use. One wonders if people actually said this, or if it’s just something Mark Twain made up to fool people.
Here’s the definition from Urban Dictionary:
Oldcootism used during great consternation or surprise. Used by 1890s prospectors, cantankerous old farmers, and young people playing old people on TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
That is certainly the case in this commercial, where the Old Coot in question uses late 19th/early20th century slang like flibbity-flab, mumbo-jumbo, gobbledy-gook, and okie McSmokie skittly doo, which I think was made up by the writers of this commercial while they were really, really high. (All Old Cootisms are taken from the transcript of this commercial at the Progressive web site. I, for one, am not making this up.) Dagnabbit is a play on goddammit, with the first and last letters of god switched to, I don’t know, make it more palatable. Same with tarnation for damnation, and consarn it for consign it to hell.
But here’s the thing. The Old Coot says
Do I still get all the dagnabbit coverage I need?
This doesn’t make any sense. You’d never say
Do I still get all the godammit coverage I need?
You might say “goddamn coverage”, but you can’t translate that to “dagnab coverage” without totally confusing 100% of your viewing audience. So are we supposed to think that the Old Coot is really crazy, and doesn’t know how to use his Old Cootisms, or should we think that the writers are clueless? Or perhaps, as I pointed out earlier, high?
Sure, I’m a linguist and I obsess about stuff like this. But I think if you’re going to use language as the entire fabric of a joke in a nationwide commercial, you might want to, you know, get it right. I would like to offer my services to Progressive to vet all future commercials for this sort of thing. In the meantime:
Zounds!
Strewth!
and Bloody Hell!
If they had said” dadgum” coverage it would have worked better.
I was thinking “dolgern” but dadgum is better.
Lisam, I think you meant “goldern” rather than “dolgern”. Goldern works.
you’re acting like it’s not funny when he says that. it’s hilarious. of course it’s wrong. that’s why I love it. no one’s confused about what dangnabbit means or cares that it was used wrong. it fits with THE TONE his previous two utterances.
and the point is, when you’re in customer service, and you’re closing a sale, and the customer says something weird, you assure them that they will get what they need. flo never misses a beat.
your etymology and your grammar and your transpositional examples stand up you’re just not looking for the funny that’s just below the surface for most viewers.
I totally agree, Laurel. It chafes me every time I see this ad. Dagnabbit is not an adjective. It’s an interjection.
Maybe the old coot in the ad just has Tourette’s Syndrome and he threw in a old coot swear word right there.
Thank heavens you said this. This part of the commercial was driving me crazy, but when I said something to my husband, he looked at me like I was an alien. Thank you for letting me know I’m not!
I totally agree! In fact, I just saw the commercial and pointed out the error. I was challenged so I googled it to prove my point. That’s when I discovered your comments.
Flo was cute at first but when the spots are run 2,000 times a day, she gets a bit obnoxious. Especially aggravating is when they run the same spot twice in the same break period usually with one 10 second spot in between. WE GET IT Progressive. Ok? You might have intrigued me at first, but now you are just pissing me off. I wouldn’t lift a finger to dial your number…and I am an Allstate customer!
And BTW, lisam, I think you meant “goldern” rather than “dolgern”. Goldern works.
coming from someone who uses these types of words on an everyday basis, it is not funny. but annoying. they should have had someone who knew how to use the words instead of just looking up a bunch of country slang words and throwing them in the script.
and when i saw this commercial i said everything this article and comments have as well… not an adjective, but an interjection — even said if they used dadgum instead… funny
what else is funny is that someone wrote a blog about the commercial and it’s screwup. that is much funnier than the commercial itself. :^D